Tuesday, September 25, 2012

CORE STRENGTH VINYASA YOGA: Total Body Sculpt with Sadie Nardini

Sadie Nardini is the creator of Total Body Transformation yoga DVD series. She's also a wellness expert with Dr. Oz. Sadie breaks up the routine on this DVD into eight different sections that you can select separately to build your own workout using the fabulous matrix option, or you can do the entire thing. Again, I love this flexibility in the workout to be customizable to your needs for each day! I'm not going to lie, this was a difficult routine, she has unique approaches and transitions that I haven't experienced before. I found some poses difficult and so I would advise that this is an intermediate/advanced yoga DVD. If you are a beginner you can certainly still use this DVD and work your way up to doing each pose.

Sadie narrates as she demonstrates the routine. There is an option if you play it on your DVD player to select audio 2 which includes music. I was using my laptop in my studio so I didn't have that option (or couldn't figure it out), so I ended up playing some Japanese flute music which was an incredible experience with the movements. If you choose no music the only sounds other than her voice will be that of the outdoor location she was in, a soft breeze, a thunderstorm in the distance, etc.

Below you can find each of the different segments and what I thought of each of them:

1 Core Warm-Up (12 min)- Includes some great progressions and abdominal work!

2 Core Salutations (14 min)- Really good for your core and your lower back alignment. Sadie takes you through the poses with unique transitions and she includes kicks and lunges, down dog splits, and other power-full movements. She has you exhale a little "ha!" for some of them, I have a sore throat and am losing my voice, so I couldn't do that, but I imagine that it would allow you to access your core much like martial arts. You also get to do some hops that might be counted as inversions. It is incredible to watch her power and control as she does these. If you weren't warm enough after the warm up, you will definitely warm up during this sequence!

3 Standing Sequence (14 min)-My favorite transition was from warrior I to diving warrior to reverse warrior. The images that she gives about a golden egg in your core is helpful in remembering to lift the abdominals. When I think of standing sequences I think of tree pose and dancer pose, and all of those other balances. While I was doing this section I wasn't sure why she called it a standing sequence, but in hindsight you are standing, you aren't on the floor.

4 Standing Sequence 2 (12 min)-lots of prayer twist, prayer twist lunge, and other twisting poses. In the morning this feels fantastic on the spine! Crow pose is a part of this sequence as the ending goal. Sadie calls these goals adventure poses.

5 Standing Sequence 3 (11 min)-The goal is to work towards firefly. This sequence goes by pretty fast and feels fabulous! You get to venture through half moon, and other poses that are similar. Firefly pose is done at the very end of this sequence.

6 Deep Core Strength (7 min)-This is a tough one, but short! So keep your energy up and it will be so worth the effort! Lots of plank, twisting plank, etc.

7 Floor Stretch and Counterpose (12 min)-This is a nice stretch sequence that begins with boat pose and moves into other poses including pigeon, down-dog split then bending the knee and opening to release the hip flexors. There is also a middle splits pose that feels fabulous.

8 Inversion and Counter Posing (12 min)- This is for those that are into headstands. I used to be able to do them, but I've stopped practicing and preparing so I wasn't so graceful on this one. After the headstands she moves into bridge poses and finishes.

This is a yoga DVD that is going in my favorites list! It is challenging, feels good, and builds strength and power physically and emotionally.